Severe clear all day - beautiful day in the wilderness. Summited Bancroft twice on round trip this day. There were at least three other persons on Bancroft and Parry this day. I was going solo, as was another.

Ascended a couloir on the North Side of the Peak. Bailed out of the couloir about 2/3 of the way up (it was dull) and climbed some 4th class rock to the ridge instead. In doing so, we were able to bypass the rap that the previous posted mentioned. The ridge was nice. We left the rack in the pack and just went for it. The rock was loose so we figured we'd be safer without roping up. There were only a couple of short 5th class sections to negotiate. Fun day. Nice exposure and of course, nice glissades back to the lake.

The first major notch that you encounter on the way up requires about a 22m rappel. Be sure to bring a 20-30 ft sling and rap ring, and please carry any old webbing home with you. Just to spice things up, our rope got caught when we pulled it, and I had to climb back up the steep wall to get it. If you stay right on the ridge after the first notch, you'll encounter a couple of low 5th class sections. Attacking them directly kept us on fairly solid terrrain. A very light alpine rack up to 1" (I had 5 pieces) will let you put in running pro. After the two 5th class cruxes, we put the rope in the pack and scrambled up 4th and 3rd class terrain to the upper shoulder. Parts of this critter are very steep and loose, and I was very glad to have my helmet.

This was a great hike. It is a bit steep in the beginning but the terrain was very sound and easy to hike. Great weather all day and we also took in Parry, Eva, Flora and Witter. Made for an awesome loop.

The mountain road was pretty rocky and made for an interesting morning. Once we got to the lake we started the hike around 7:00am. The weather continued to worsen throughout the morning. We got to 12,700 feet and we were covered by clouds. At this time we began to descend back to the car. Overall it was a beautiful mountain. I'd love to try this mountain again.

Route Climbed: tressle to Rogers Pass to James Peak to Bancroft Date Climbed: July 1, 2003

Great hike along the Continental Divide. Easy, relatively level hike up to Rogers Pass. The guidebook I had consulted for this hike said that there was no trail going up to James Peak, only bouldering. I was surprised to find a well defined trail cut by shovels complete with switchbacks and red flag markers on both sides of James Peak.

Weather conditions were perfect (clear skies, 60s, virtually no wind, no threatening clouds) so I decided to go on across to Bancroft (13,250) and then to Parry Peak (13,391). I radioed back to my family at their house in Fraser that I was doing this. If I had realized that I was already halfway to Berthoud Pass, I would have continued on to there. Instead, I turned around and came back across Bancroft and James Peaks.

There was no log book on top of Parry Peak. There was a log book on top of James but no pen or pencil to sign it with! I did sign the log book on Bancroft.